A Maltese man has been elected chairman of Europe’s largest youth political organisation in a landslide plebiscite.

Beppe Galea won the European Democrat Students post on Saturday with 98 per cent of the vote. 

He is the first Maltese national to hold the post.

Galea, who also worked as a journalist with Newsbook, served as EDS secretary general during its 2020/21 term and spent years working in local youth political organisation SDM. 

He will now lead the EDS for a one-year term as its chair, along with his running mate Ivan Botoucharov, who will serve as EDS secretary-general. Under EDS rules, Galea and Botoucharov can run for up to a maximum of two terms.

The duo were contested by Thomas Belligh from Belgium and Karlo Kolesar from Croatia.

The EDS is the youth wing of the European People’s Party, the centre-right grouping of European political parties which the Nationalist Party forms a part of.

It represents over a million students and young people in 40 member organisations from 35 countries in Europe.

Among those who congratulated him on the achievement was PN leader Bernard Grech, who tweeted: 

"I have no doubt that you'll lead EDS professionally. This is great news for Malta, seeing one of its own reaching such heights in EU politics."

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